Yellow Jackets knock off Tigers

ATLANTA — Too bad that coach Oliver Purnell’s 17th-ranked Clemson team didn’t listen as closely as its opponent in Thursday’s opening round of the ACC tournament.

Purnell stressed all game long that in order to survive and advance, his fifth-seeded Tigers had to play better defense. Instead, upset-minded Georgia Tech dominated play in the lane and stunned Clemson 86-81. It was the third time in the last four years that the No. 12 seed had scored an opening-round upset in this tournament.

While guard Lewis Clinch pumped in a career-high 32 points, the key to Georgia Tech’s win was its strength in the post, where Gani Lawal scored 20 points and Alade Aminu added 12.

“We’ve simply got to play better on the defensive end to win at this level,” said Purnell, whose Tigers have dropped four of their last five games and are 23-8 on the season. “Georgia Tech just kept making layups.”

The Yellow Jackets, 12-18, scored 42 of their points in the paint and had 22 second-chance points. Tech faces fourth-seeded Florida State this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Jackets coach Paul Hewitt got through to his team when he emphasized how important it would be to contain Clemson’s Trevor Booker, who finished with 17 points.

“Once we slowed down Booker, our confidence grew,” Tech’s Clinch said. “Coach told us if we stopped Booker that we’d win by 10 or 15 points.”

The two teams were deadlocked at 39 at halftime, but Purnell called a quick timeout to start the second after Clinch drilled a 3-pointer and Zach Peacock scored on an unopposed dunk.

However, nothing seemed to slow down the Yellow Jackets, who built their lead to eight within three minutes, then 12 with a little more than eight minutes to play. While Georgia Tech was effective under the basket, Clemson went cold and was shooting a mere 38 percent in the second half with 3:40 to play.

Meanwhile, Tech couldn’t miss. The Jackets shot 60 percent the second half (18 of 30).

Because the hard-luck Techsters had dropped 15 games by seven points or less this season, including six in which they blew leads deep in the second half, Hewitt kept pounding the message to contain Booker over the last 12 minutes.

The plan worked as Booker was held to only two baskets during that stretch.

Meanwhile, Tech’s big men worked the Tigers in the lane and Clinch took care of business outside, connecting on 11 of 20 shots,

including five from beyond the arc.

“Lewis has been a big-time player for us for a long time,” Hewitt said of his oft-injured backcourt star. “If he’s on the court consistently, this is what you see from him. He’s in mid-season form right now and I expect him to play like this [today].”

Still, Clemson did make it exciting at the end, nailing four of its 10 treys in the final two minutes and chewed Tech’s lead from 10 to only three (84-81) with 7.5 seconds to play on a bomb from Andre Young.

How fitting for Clinch to decide the whole thing with 6.9 seconds showing when he was sent to the free throw line for the clinching (pun intended) free throws. He made both.

“No pressure,” Clinch said afterward. “I was thinking swish. We play a ‘swish game’ in practice every day where we the free throw has to go straight in. That was a great addition to practice by Coach Hewitt.”

Purnell will wait now for Sunday’s NCAA tournament pairings announcement. But he’ll have some thinking to do.

“We scored in the 80’s again,” the Clemson coach said. “That should be enough to win.”